i see it in ED and PW. I thought It was a bomb shape fruit, looks like the CN glossary needs to update
Dao fruits/trees/plants and stuff are physical pieces of "Dao" or Cultivation Theory/Philosophy/Enlightenment. usually eaten for power/knowledge or crafted into artifacts.
Think of a Devil fruit but inside is not power but knowledge over a specific dao that can be used to enhance your knowledge of the dao or refine into pills that increase its effect or a weapon that contains the dao
Dao fruit - mythical. No known conditions to it's growth environment, but usually found in ancient ruins. wisdom 10+ Exp-3000 ( 50% chance of advancement in class, 75% with item [scent of serendipity] ) A fruit found in the mystical dao trees enriched over eons with the essence of the world. legends state one can become enlightened in their path of Ascension.
I always imagined it as the concept of a Dao given physical form And that eating it would be like receiving a forced enlightenment for the Dao that fruit is based on
Here is an example: Think that you never tasted an orange, but you are studying them. You can smell and touch them, but you have never eaten one. You know all the aspects of an orange apart from the taste. By eating one, you will be able to understand that 'taste'. At that point you will have the taste, smell, touch and know perfectly how an orange feels. Now, take out 'orange' and replace it with some kind of 'Dao Fruit', like the Dao of Fire. By eating the Dao of Fire's Fruit you will be able to get directly a piece of it's comprehension. In the case of the orange, you will get and comprehend how an orange taste. In the case of the Dao of Fire's Fruit, you will get and comprehend how the Dao of Fire 'taste'.
Dao Fruits are rarely eaten but used in Fights. That's why I asked lol. I think your on the right track. Dao Fruits are like Fate Palaces but only come out in enlightenment of grand dao. Then again it's definition might be different in every novel. That's how CNs are. In RI they're actually eaten. PW enlightenment, ED to create a new era.
In most cultivation novel that I read I remember that they are eaten: Martial World, True Martial World, Reverend Insanity, Grasping Evil, Emperor's Domination, Renegade immortal, ISSTH
If you ask for its original meaning, that's "achievement/enlightenment": Taoism compares cultivation to planting a tree. First, you plant the seed, then you watering the tree, the result is a fruit. Of course, there are novels made it literal fruit.